The day starts even later – we’re going to paddle around the island and check out the ranger station. The fishing plan is “catch and release” so we leave the stringer and net back at camp. As we went east, this plan didn’t last long. I look back and my rod is bent almost to the side of the canoe. I reel in and it’s a small northern who thought he was big and bad. He was put back to hopefully live a long and prosperous life. About 5 minutes later, my rod bends back again. I reel in and to me, it’s a HUGE walleye. Turns out, only 19”, but since we have more fish fry batter, this guy will be a “catch and release”, right into the fry pan. We jerry-rig a rope and bungee cords together to create a stringer to hold our fish. We continue on and Lari mentions that I really should try to lift and portage the canoe. Okay – I can do this. The next portage is about 65 rods. What a mistake that was!!! Since I have no shoulder strength, I could hardly lift the canoe over my head, much less try and balance it to walk. I never took a step – but it was fun to try.

Lari takes the canoe back from me and I get a head start to the other side so I can get my walleye back in the water. What a site that greeted me. It was the boathouse and ranger station. It appears to still be an actively used station as there is evidence of freshly cut wood and fairly new windows in the “home”, but no one was around while we were there. On our way back to camp, we followed three playful otters that were determined to stay as far in front of us as possible.